In a patient suffering from urinary incontinence, particularly stress urinary incontinence, urine leakage (involuntary urination) occurs due to abdominal pressure exerted during a normal exercise or by laughing, coughing, sneezing or the like. This is attributable, for example, to loosening of the pelvic floor muscle, which is a muscle that supports the urethra, caused by childbirth or the like.
For treatment of urinary incontinence, surgical therapy is effective. For instance, a tape-shaped implant called a “sling” is used and set indwelling in the body so as to support the urethra by the sling. An example is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2010-99499. To put a sling indwelling in the body, an operator incises the vagina with a surgical knife, dissects biological tissue (living body tissue) between the urethra and the vagina, and provides communication between the dissected biological tissue and the exterior through an obturator foramen by using a puncture needle or the like. Then, in such a state, the sling is set indwelling in the dissected biological tissue in the body.
Since the biological tissue between the urethra and the vagina is a very thin layer, however, an insufficient skill of the operator may lead to damage to the urethra during dissection of the biological tissue. In addition, where the dissected layer of the biological tissue is close to the vagina side, the sling set indwelling may be located excessively close to the vagina side. In such a case, with the lapse of time after the surgery, the sling may come to break through the vaginal wall, to be exposed to the inside of the vagina.